"No matter how much rhetoric librarians offer, if they abandon their core mission, they not only insult the dignity of the history of libraries but offer no reason for the library's continued existence. After all, the other services can be provided cheaper and better by student unions, residential halls, athletic centers, computer labs and coffee shops." - Sir Shuping is just sir from Bookmarklet

wow...this is of course written by a non-librarian and someone that's way off the mark in some respects I think. "The rise of library science" has led to our downfall? Students aren't supposed to connect and collaborate in our building, only in the classroom? I wonder what's led him to feel like the library has abandoned him, because that's def. what this rant feels like to me. He doesn't talk about what others have told him just he feels. I'd love to have an actual conversation with him to discuss why he feels this way, nothing attacking him I just want to know more about it. - Sir Shuping is just sir

Nice response in the comments at IHE, Andrew. - Your Neighbor Steve

thanks steve. Fiona I absolutely agree with you about the library as a place. - Sir Shuping is just sir

I guess if I were going to follow this up, the first two questions I'd look into are (1) what do students think about the role of the library today--the library as they know it and the library as they would like it to be? And (2) If students could just as easily collaborate in student unions, computer labs, coffee shops, and so on, ARE they doing that? Why do the students who go to the library still choose the library instead of the coffee shop? - Your Neighbor Steve

wow...librarians are fighting back in the comments, including the University Librarian Emeritus at Yale. Steve I like those questions! I want to ask our students those too, but not sure if/how they would respond to it - Sir Shuping is just sir

Steve: I was just looking at the comments on our recent Libqual survey, and our students seem to think that the library should be a quiet study space with lots of parking nearby. Oh, and that while ILL is great and all, e-resources should be all full text, all the time and never, ever, ever not work. (Our student body is made up of lots of older students and lots of commuters, so these things make a lot of sense.) - Kirsten

Fiona, same here (class of '00 for undergrad). I always specifically avoided the "loud" floor of the library in favor of quiet corners in which to study/work. If I needed to work on a group project, we did that in someone's room/apt or some other non-library space. - Rachel Walden

Oh, great point Fiona. And profs usually come to the library in the afternoon, while the students don't really move in until after dinner. - Your Neighbor Steve

Western is a pretty small public university in WA with a new president. We (public academia) have been and will continue to be hammered by severe state budget cuts, I think Western had ~400 layoffs. I have to wonder if the fallout might be behind his perspective. http://crosscut.com/2009... - Nikki D.

Just thinking I should balance my own comment with one that students do make a lot of use of the group study rooms in MPOW, and a vocal contingent always expresses a wish that there were more of these rooms. - Rachel Walden

Oddly enough, I read the post twice and still couldn't understand the point he was making -- every library I've ever been to (and it was the first place I was allowed to walk to on my own as a rather young child) has been more than an "archive" of material. It was the comments that helped me understand the post! - Mickey Schafer